Rakuten dominates All-Star voting

Slugger Takeshi Yamasaki and rookie pitcher Masahiro Tanaka were among eight Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles players named to the upcoming All-Star series as the final results of fan balloting were announced Monday. Yamasaki, who has hit 28 home runs and 61 RBIs this season — both Pacific League highs — was the top vote-getter overall with 1,094,803 as Rakuten dominated the 12 sections in the PL for the July 20-21 series at Tokyo Dome and Fullcast Stadium. Tanaka was the top pick of the PL pitchers with 570,978 while Rakuten’s Motohiro Shima led the votes in the league’s catcher section. Rakuten became the first PL team to have eight players named to the All-Star series since the Nippon Ham Fighters in 1978.